Occurrence of the freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester, 1800 from Uzunçayır dam lake (Tunceli), Turkey

Abstract

In this study, <em>Craspedacusta sowerbii</em> Lankester, 1880 a jellyfish species belonging to freshwater hydrozoan group, was reported for the first time in the field study carried out at Uzun&ccedil;ayır dam lake in Tunceli province on 15 September 2018. The plankton samples were obtained from two different regions of the lake using UNESCO WP2 plankton net with mesh size of 200 &micro;m. <em>C. sowerbii</em>, one of the fresh water hydrozoans obtained from plankton samples, is rarely observed in man-made lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, and has not been observed earlier in the Uzun&ccedil;ayır dam lake. The <em>C. sowerbii</em> might have placed in the lake through some fishing activities which were conducted from 2010 to 2017 and/or through some sport equipment&rsquo;s (i.e. boat, jetski, were brought to the region for recreational purposes).